Carbon remediation costs will become an increasingly important part of IT business cases, contractors have been told.

Gartner has predicted that by 2014 the savings created by processes such as server vitalisation and desktop power management will generate savings in energy costs that can justify projects.

It stated: "Incorporating carbon costs into business cases provides a further measure of savings and prepares the organisation for increased scrutiny of its carbon impact."

Among the key drivers of this trend will be both economic and political pressure to become more responsible, contractors may be interested to discover.

Other important areas of development will be the reduction in companies that own business assets, with virtualisation and cloud-enabled services growing in prominence.

Earlier this week, a representative of therenewableenergycentre.co.uk claimed that more green and carbon-reducing technologies are being rolled out in larger corporations, which could create new opportunities for IT contractors with the knowledge needed to implement these processes.